Wallis Lake jetties get borer in the piles, soft decking and pontoons that ride low, and most sit over seagrass or near an oyster lease. We replace piles, re-deck, lay mesh decking where seagrass grows underneath and plan the job around the leases, from the Forster-Tuncurry entrance channel down the lake to Coomba Park and Pacific Palms. Tell us which part of the lake yours is on and what is wrong with it.
Get a Quote →Wallis Lake is one of the cleanest and largest coastal lake systems on the NSW Mid North Coast, with a permanent trained entrance to the ocean between Forster and Tuncurry. That entrance channel behaves very differently to the rest of the lake — strong tidal flow and near-full ocean salinity around Forster, Tuncurry and Cape Hawke, softening to a much calmer, more brackish lake body further west toward Coomba Park, Green Point and the Wallamba and Coolongolook river mouths.
That range matters for jetty repair. A pile near the Forster-Tuncurry bridge faces genuine marine borer pressure and boat-wash chop. A pile at Tarbuck Bay or up near Wallingat sits in softer, siltier ground with lower salinity, where rot and settlement are the bigger risks rather than borer. Wallis Lake is also one of the largest oyster-growing estuaries in NSW, so plenty of jetty and pontoon work happens right alongside leased aquaculture areas — timing and access have to be worked around the growers, not just the tide.
Replace borer-damaged, rotted or settled piles with H6-treated hardwood suited to wherever your jetty sits on Wallis Lake — entrance channel or upper lake. Cost per pile depends on length, timber species and how deep it needs to be driven.
Strip and re-deck with marine-grade hardwood, rebuild cross-bracing and upgrade all hardware to 316 stainless steel for long-term saltwater and lake performance.
Re-float waterlogged pontoons, replace failed EPS modules and service guide-pile systems — including moorings positioned near oyster lease boundaries.
Full above- and below-waterline structural assessment with pile sounding, borer sampling and photo documentation. Cost depends on structure size and access.
Wallis Lake carries some of the biggest oyster leases on the NSW coast, and plenty of private jetties sit right beside them. Pile driving, barge access and any in-water work have to be planned around lease boundaries and grower schedules, and NSW DPI Fisheries notification requirements can apply — confirm those before work starts.
Wallis Lake holds about one-fifth of the seagrass in NSW, according to the NSW Government's estuary profile, and is the state's northernmost stronghold of Posidonia australis (strapweed). The Commonwealth guide for the endangered Posidonia australis meadows, which reach their northern end here, recommends mesh decking on jetties so light reaches the seagrass. The same profile ranks the lake among Australia's most significant Sydney rock oyster producers, so silt, offcuts and barge routes need to stay clear of the leases.
The lake meets the sea through a large trained entrance between Forster and Tuncurry, and the tide shrinks as it moves in. Manly Hydraulics Laboratory's 2001–2020 tidal analysis gives a mean range of 0.879 m at the entrance, 0.238 m on the Wallamba River at Tuncurry and 0.135 m at Pacific Palms Wharf. A jetty on the entrance channel has close to a metre of tide. One near Pacific Palms has very little. Low-water windows, pile exposure and deck height all change across the lake.
Near the entrance, the bed has not stayed put. A 2011 WorleyParsons report for the former Great Lakes Council, now MidCoast Council, dates the breakwaters to 1898 (south) and 1966 (north). Citing the 1999 Wallis Lake Estuary Processes Study, which used aerial photos from 1937 to 1997, it reports sand appearing to build up between Wallis Island and Tonys Island, and islands in the entrance channel eroding, particularly just upstream of the Forster-Tuncurry Bridge. Say where your jetty sits when you enquire.
Enquiries are welcome from both sides of the entrance, Forster and Tuncurry, and from around the rest of the Wallis Lake area, including Green Point, Tarbuck Bay, Coomba Park, Charlotte Bay, Pacific Palms, Wallingat and Failford. Boomerang Beach, Elizabeth Beach and Hallidays Point are covered too. The tide at Pacific Palms is a fraction of the tide at the entrance, so it helps to say which part of the lake your jetty is on.
Tell us what you need and where the property is.